From Manual Labor to Mastering Cybersecurity: Amanda's Inspirational Journey

Have you ever wondered how a manual labor worker ends up working with the FBI in cybersecurity? Today, we bring you the fascinating journey of Amanda, who made the remarkable transition from manual labor to cybersecurity, thanks to a career-ending injury and a surprising knack for technology. Join us as she shares her intriguing insights into the world of cybersecurity, the Google Cyber Security course, and how to find your niche in this rapidly evolving field.

In a surprising turn of events, Amanda's journey became even more fascinating when she had to use her newly-acquired Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) techniques to outsmart an online stalker. If you've ever underestimated the power of keen observation and attention to detail, Amanda's real-life experience will make you think twice. She shares how she managed to locate a potential troll from a single photograph, a testament to the power of OSINT.

As the conversation unfolds, we also delve into Amanda's inspiring journey of learning programming and mastering technical concepts, despite not having a technical background. Learn how she grappled with Python, explored different learning methods, and discovered the importance of scripting. But that's not all. We also examine the significant role of privacy and anonymity in social media, the limitations of anonymity, and the possible implications of the power grid and the internet going offline. So, prepare yourself for a thrilling ride as we unravel the world of cybersecurity through Amanda's eyes.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

It is me the Cyber Warrior. This is Cyber Warrior Studios and I know you're all here for another amazing security happy hour. We got a big show planned. I ain't gonna lie. My sister, amanda, is in the house. We're gonna have a long conversation. It's gonna be a fun conversation. There's gonna be some drinks to be had and some talk to be had, because we got some stories to tell, some oscent to share and a little bit of information about the Google Cyber Security course show. Just stick around for a few seconds. I promise we'll be right back MUSIC and we're back and hold on there. It is the official kickoff security happy hour. Welcome to the show, amanda. Thank you for joining me this evening. How are you doing today?

Speaker 2: 0:47

Good, good, good, glad to be here.

Speaker 1: 0:51

I'm happy to finally have you on because ever since I, kind of you know, pushed you into starting this journey, I've been trying to get you on.

Speaker 2: 0:58

Yeah, well, I kind of had to understand a little more of the lingo.

Speaker 1: 1:04

LAUGHING, but yeah, so it's all good. I love having you on and we do. We have quite a bit to share before we get started For everybody in chat. Like I said on YouTube, if you have questions, ask as we go along. Super chats automatically get pinned. They go to the top and I'm able to show them to Amanda right away, so we will do that as well. Otherwise, we'll run this show like we always do. So, amanda, kind of give me a well, not me, because I've already talked to you, but give the audience a little bit of an introduction to yourself and what got you into cybersecurity.

Speaker 2: 1:40

Oh, let's see. Well, I've spent most of my most of my adult life just trying to figure out exactly what it is that I wanted to do in my life. I was very happy in the blue collar manual labor type work. There was actually like a period of time a couple of years ago when I was getting into that, that point in my life where I was like, okay, I know, blue collar work is not something I'm going to be able to do forever, it's just not a long lived career and it's my body was already starting to show signs of you don't got many years of this left. So I was starting to look around and a really good friend a couple of years ago actually put cybersecurity like presented it to me and I was like I'm like, dude, you know me, my track record with technology is a need to know basis and that's about it. We don't risk it. And just kind of floated along like looking for things.

Speaker 2: 2:44

And then I actually got hurt. It'll be a year a year in August I hurt my back. Five bulging discs ended the blue collar career and just been kind of sitting around trying to figure out what it was. And it was. I had just met you through the Pagan project and popped into a live I think you and Looney were doing, and I was like, okay, I'll bite, I'll bite, what do?

Speaker 1: 3:09

I need to do.

Speaker 2: 3:10

How does I think? My exact comment was how does one get into cybersecurity? And it just kind of bloomed from there. You threw a ton of information at me.

Speaker 1: 3:18

I got so overwhelmed until you discovered my super secret skills and that's and that's really what it comes down to is finding your niche, finding what you're good at or what you're really passionate about anyways, and there were things that you were doing that you didn't understand how it translated into cybersecurity Exactly, and I think a lot of that goes to, and this is why and I forgot to put it on my LinkedIn post, even though you said I should do it, you know, this is why I said you'd be like a great fit for like the FBI or you know any other three letter agency or even you know some other organizations is your ability to dig and dig and dig and dig.

Speaker 1: 4:03

I mean, you're like your own personal FBI. So how did that start, like what really got into that? And how are you giving and you don't have to give all of the how it started, like any details that you'd rather leave out, but essentially really what triggered you to kind of dig into that OSINT and finding profiles and things like that?

Speaker 2: 4:23

It actually started to outsmart a stalker. I had a online stalker and they kept finding out stuff about me that I had no idea how they were finding it out. So I started kind of just playing around like just to try to get ahead of this person, and it just kind of evolved from there and through the year, like the couple years like so that was probably like three years ago, three, four years ago that that started and it went on for a couple years and then I started to have issues with this person and everything, and just meeting some other people that are kind of skilled in the same area kind of taught me some things and I've always had kind of a natural ability to see the things and hear the things that aren't said or kind of see the things that one normally wouldn't notice. Like. I don't necessarily want to call it detail oriented, it's just picking up the little things.

Speaker 1: 5:40

Right, and well, you know, I've noticed a lot of people have a knack for that right. Looking at the little details that a lot of people overlook, a lot of people miss from a screen name to a, the way they speak to the way they type, to the way they, you know, kind of label, everything the exact same way. And so that's one of those things where, if you look at it, that's how a lot of people have been caught, because there's people like you that can pick up on those little signs, like, oh, I'm going to have the same type of handle in everything it's always going to have, like either this or that or the third. And when you start noticing those trends it makes it easier to find people.

Speaker 2: 6:25

Yeah, that, actually that most recent one on that TikTok issue that was was kind of not the most most recent one, but the one of somebody going on a made up account no followers, no following were dumb enough to use an actual photograph not of their face, but it was an actual photograph and it's like I still feel that little bit of like gosh, I'm crazy. But just from that photo alone I was able to tell that it was not pulled off of the internet. It was either pulled off of a private profile or was an original photo from their camera. And just the contents of the picture alone I was able to. Like the biggest thing in there was like, oh okay, there's like three cars in it.

Speaker 2: 7:11

Like let's, let's try to look at the car directly in front of the one where where it was taken, couldn't zoom in close enough to see a license plate. But there was three cars oncoming. So I looked at that. All three cars did not have front license plates. So quick Google what states don't require front license plates? Narrowed down, or gave me 22 states. But I already had kind of a suspect. But if going through there, going into the general area, was able to determine that that picture was taken somewhere in the vicinity of Wichita Kansas, actually did find the exact intersection that that photograph was taken at. And then, I think it was a couple of days later, somebody else commented from their original profile, in the exact same pattern of speech, that they were commenting on this fake profile. And boom, there it is, and they were confronted with it and admitted that it was them and they were from Wichita Kansas.

Speaker 1: 8:07

And that's the craziest thing is when, when you look at it and we got Natalie here and everybody else's agreeing but the power of observation, and that's what it comes down to. And now they try, they try, but it it doesn't work for everybody, but they try to teach that in the military right, especially if you're going to be in certain positions and doing certain jobs, you have to be able to see everything, all your exits, who's around you, what's going on, how everybody's acting, all these things. And so you get that from more of a real life perspective. But I think it's harder for them to do on a digital perspective, because if you don't understand the difference between Photoshop and what is fake, or now you have AI and everything like that, it is very hard to decipher that sometimes, and even myself I'll look at certain pictures and I can tell, I'd say probably 90% of the time, when it's Photoshopped, ai is probably 95%, maybe 99, just because there's a lot of a lot of glitches and a lot of things they distort in AI images.

Speaker 1: 9:13

That it's, you know, really easy to tell Depending on who created the image. But from a perspective of just different people doing, trying to be trolls and trying to create different profiles and trying to do different things they don't change. Humans don't change.

Speaker 2: 9:33

Increasing the habit.

Speaker 1: 9:34

Does not change, and so, when you're looking at it from an observation perspective, we can go into the one person that we've been dealing with recently where all of their names are the exact same format, the way they speak is the exact same in every comment, everything they do is the exact same. They don't change. Now, it is one thing if you were a someone like myself who's a business. I have Cyber Warrior Studios, I own it, I have the Cyber Warrior in recently digital heat and on TikTok, you know, but I do everything under generally something about Cyber Warrior. I'm not hard to find. I don't make it hard to find because I ain't doing shit that I care, that I care if somebody finds out about I hope you find me and watch my shit or maybe that I'll get paid for it. But for other people they do it and they troll and it's like dude, I can find you, like I know people that in 0.5 seconds will find you.

Speaker 2: 10:34

How long did it when you went from when I replied to you about that? How long did it take me to have that article? I think, a minute yeah.

Speaker 1: 10:43

I think it was like anywhere from like half a second, no, from about 30 seconds to a minute, and then possibly just because you had to type it and or do the copy and paste, and that was the second thing I looked up. It did not take long.

Speaker 1: 10:58

I looked up something else first before going to that, so yeah, so it's one of those things when you look at this and this is where we get into public and private information right when we look at these things, the only thing private that has my name on it is my Facebook profile. I will share things publicly if it is in regard to cyber warrior studios. Other than that, unless somebody else has a public profile and they tag me in it, I am. Everything I do is private, because I have a private life that I want to keep to just my friends. How often do you come across and I think this is the biggest thing, especially in cybersecurity and IT when you are looking at social engineering and really taking advantage of the situation, of what hackers take advantage of well, not hackers, but attackers and people trying to do malicious things? How often do you run across profiles that are public, completely public, with all the information out there?

Speaker 2: 12:02

Honestly, I think I run into more public than private accounts. I would say I run into more and I can still get what I need off of a private account, but it is not even so much you, as your friends and family. I get more information from your friends and families accounts than I get off of yours.

Speaker 1: 12:27

I have actually seen that on tech talk, where people have done that. They have been like, oh, I got this, I knew who they were tagging, but I couldn't get your information. So I found people who tagged you in things and got their information, which led me back to you and who you are and where you're from. And when I was, I think, you sent me that video.

Speaker 2: 12:48

I probably did because you sent me that I'm like yeah, that's exactly what I do.

Speaker 1: 12:52

Yeah, when I was, You're right. I'm like, yeah, I'm not gonna get your information as your baseball candle, but yeah, I think it's one of those things you look at and people don't understand that it's not. It's like six degrees to Kevin Bacon. Right, Like, you can make all your shit private, but if you are allowing people to tag you, allowing people to mention you, and it links back to you in any certain way with your government name, with your legit name, you're gonna get found.

Speaker 1: 13:27

There's nothing you can do about it, which is one of the reasons why I despise Metta and like threads came out and they're like oh, get threads, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. And all these people are gonna say, no, hey, I got enough social media that I need to worry about. I don't need one more. To like, I gotta be posting on. I can't even keep up with Blue Sky or whatever the hell it is, Let alone threads like I. No, no, it's not gonna happen. And so I look at this what do you think is the easiest social media, whether it be TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, is it? Facebook, Is it?

Speaker 2: 14:05

the information Is the easiest. That's literally the only reason I still have a Facebook, because that is the easiest one to get information. I haven't spent enough time digging in TikTok to evaluate it. Instagram can be tricky if you don't know what you're looking for, and half the time with the two of those I go back and forth between Instagram and like. If I can't find what I'm looking for on Instagram but I found their Facebook, I'll go through their friends list on Facebook to find to see if I can find an easier formatted handle like user ID, because if somebody uses like, oh like. They don't have their name connected to it. But that's like, oh like. Flower child 58 is their username, but they don't have their name attached to it. So, okay, maybe one of your friends has their name attached to their Instagram and then all I have to do is go find you and they're following to find your Instagram.

Speaker 2: 15:17

So with that, I know there's probably more efficient ways to do what I do, but this is just the method.

Speaker 1: 15:24

Have you ever done a reverse image search on Google yet?

Speaker 2: 15:27

Yes.

Speaker 1: 15:29

That is an amazing tool. It is such an amazing tool to literally drag and drop an image into Google and it's like oh yeah, it's been used all of here and you can find the original source.

Speaker 2: 15:40

Yep.

Speaker 1: 15:42

And I'm like.

Speaker 2: 15:43

Yeah, that's what I used on that, that one picture that was like it's a road driving into a sun. That dropped that in there. Found stuff similar, but didn't find that image.

Speaker 1: 15:55

Yeah, I like Bing too.

Speaker 2: 15:57

Bing actually gives you less shopping options than Google does.

Speaker 1: 16:02

Yeah yeah, Google is very broad, Bing's more narrowed.

Speaker 2: 16:08

But yeah, like if you're trying to do a picture of a person on Google, it kicks back what they're wearing. I'm like I don't care about that. I want to know who that is. Oh.

Speaker 1: 16:22

Yeah, that makes sense.

Speaker 2: 16:25

Bing still does the same thing, but it actually will kick you back. People that resemble it or the actual picture.

Speaker 1: 16:31

Yeah, and that's the hardest thing to find is the actual picture, and that's oh, hold up Infinite Improbability. Ai, the creator of Silk Road, was found out because he promoted it using a personal email or something similar. Why does that not shock me?

Speaker 2: 16:53

101, create another email address that is not associated to you.

Speaker 1: 16:59

So I had a contact reach out to me recently and she said hey, I want to help someone out, but I don't want to put my name on it. How can I do it anonymously? Well, it's hard to be ever ever be completely anonymous. But if you're worried about their as long as they're not a security person you can go through like a VPN and create a free email on I prefer Proton Mail, but anything and just don't put your real name in it. Don't put your real anything. Then it can't come back to you Excuse me, because it's all fake and now that's not going to work with something like the FBI or any of those three letter agencies, but for Joe Blow out there, screw it.

Speaker 1: 17:44

Go out there, put a fake name on it. Call yourself Felicia freaking smorgasbord. I only say that because, felicia, you were the last one to leave a comment on YouTube. That's the first name to pop my head. But call yourself whatever you could give yourself a female name, a male name, whatever name you can call yourself an alien, put whatever you want on it, nobody cares as long as there's two names. You could literally put a bunch of characters in that mean absolutely nothing, and every single provider will allow that to go through.

Speaker 1: 18:20

What I will say is don't ever put your real birthday on there. Just make yourself as old as possible, however old it allows you to make. You go ahead and make it as old as possible, because then what are they going to say? They can't link it back to your age, they can't link it back to you. So if you're trying to be anonymous and do things the right way, again, it's not going to pass three letter agencies, because you're still going to do things that are going to trigger their investigators here, like Amanda, who should be with these three letter agencies, but it will bypass many other normal Well, I hate the word normal, nobody's normal.

Speaker 2: 19:05

Any other weirdos?

Speaker 1: 19:06

like us that just work in cybersecurity but avoid, don't observe, everything. Yeah, us people, us, the ones that don't see the little things, that's who it'll bypass. But no, so I love it and I think that's a lot, because what do you, if you were to see how some of these organizations act? Would you put yourself more as an investigator, or would you put yourself more as someone who wants to do like hands-on tech work If you're going through the Google course, so I don't want to get into that yet. I still got a lot of time left for this show, so I just want to.

Speaker 2: 19:57

I can't get an answer. Just still, with my track record with technology, I would love to be an investigator, like that's still, like, like I told you when you pointed this out to me, I'm like you mean I could have been paid for this hobby that I've been enjoying for the past couple years.

Speaker 1: 20:18

Yeah, a little bit a little bit. You could have been getting like GS, whatever pay by now and be sitting in bankroll and shit. Instead you're sitting there and been like shit.

Speaker 2: 20:33

Yeah, I was like shit. Yo Did never even dawned on me.

Speaker 1: 20:42

Space Tacos. Amanda is a natural investigator. She is the one I go to her, and like one or two other people, but first her.

Speaker 2: 20:51

And then the other one comes to me too.

Speaker 1: 20:54

Right, everybody else goes to you, but if she can't find something right away, then I will, you know, offshore my services. But mostly it's Amanda and it's absolutely amazing because I love, I love what you're doing, because it shows just the importance of keeping things private, and that's one. Again I go back to the military, because when I deployed in the army, me and my wife had the conversations and she knew when I was supposed to be getting back and I had told her. I said hey, you don't post when I'm leaving, don't post when I'm getting back. You don't post that I'm gone. You can post that, hey, you're having fun with the kids. You can post you're doing all this. You do not share information that I am not around. You don't do these things.

Speaker 1: 21:45

And so now, as things got closer, yes, we had conversations and it was like, oh, you know, he was supposed to be back today. Date's changed, he'll be back eventually. You know things like that. Okay, but not, hey, he's coming back today, or he's coming back next week, or he's coming back that you don't do. And so she knew that. And so that is where I loved. You know, one of the reasons that my wife was amazing when it came to social media is because she understood what you do and do not share on a public platform. Yeah, and, and she did amazing at that. But at the same time, I'm the type of person that I taught her keep things private. What is you, is you. What is what you want for your friends, is for your friends, and that's it. That's, that's yeah.

Speaker 2: 22:40

I see someone like me, someone like how my mind works, I would notice. Granted, I mean, I understand the reason for the military not sharing dates and everything like that was married to the military. I understand that spiel, but as just for like the generalized, like safety of it, like just not advertising to the world that you're home alone without.

Speaker 1: 23:05

Exactly when.

Speaker 2: 23:06

that's what we came down to my mind would notice, she hasn't posted a picture of him in a while.

Speaker 1: 23:13

You, son of a bitch. I love you, amanda, but damn you.

Speaker 2: 23:19

Like I told that one girl, like in that, in that um, was that the pagan project server that was concerned about someone finding her location or? Yeah, I don't remember what it was.

Speaker 1: 23:30

I forget which one it was.

Speaker 2: 23:31

I'm in both, but I remember her saying something like oh, the only thing I post is just like selfies in a room, and I think I have one with my coworkers at work. Okay, time out, it's at work, not to scare you or anything. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to zoom into that picture, I'm going to look at the background and I'm going to find out where you work and then I'm going to Google that find who works with you, because even if your profile is locked down, one of theirs might not be Not to scare you, but in my, I don't. I would not do anything to harm anybody, but if my mind works that way, there's people out there with bad intentions. That mind works the exact same way.

Speaker 1: 24:15

So I got I got a ton of fun comments to share with you. First is Natalie. I share purposely misleading information a lot, so people have no idea if it's real or not. That is absolutely amazing. And, Natalie, we are, we're both in the army. I absolutely love that. That's awesome. Um, let's see what's the next one. Uh, so space taco says she would notice the exact same thing. So everything about what you're saying she would notice like missing husband, da, da, da.

Speaker 2: 24:46

It's like there's a ton of pictures of the kids but there's none of him, and there was a lot before. Now there's not. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:53

Angie. Historical behavior. Um Felicia, exactly what I was thinking. Amanda, where is he? Are they divorced? Is he kidnapped? One hour post the pick of pick of him every three days.

Speaker 2: 25:11

Yeah, there you go. Have a backlog of like just random pictures Make sure they're in different outfits and one Um, let's see.

Speaker 1: 25:22

Yes, I did the same thing. Uh, switch VPNs now, okay. So, yeah, it's, it's Amanda. She just said Amanda, you're her new cyber BFF. Uh, oh, that's all right, you got. You got fighters in the mix One hour. Nope, I saw her first. But yeah, that's the thing, right? So we, we notice all these things and, once again, if you look, I'm posting these, but if you want questions answered or if you just want to be noticed and I can throw it on screen, go ahead and make a super chat. Otherwise, I'm just going to post it as it comes in. Um, I don't know what the hell it was. Uh, let's see who doesn't post misleading information on their social media. Me, I just post memes. I don't know if that's misleading, I put strong lyrics.

Speaker 1: 26:27

Mine is mostly memes and cause. They're motivational.

Speaker 2: 26:32

AR knows that. Look, I think it's all post misleading information.

Speaker 1: 26:36

It's just motivational shit. Get bent homie.

Speaker 2: 26:39

I think I just I just use song lyrics as my captions, which I did finally. I did finally take it off private after nuking the old one. Did either yesterday or this morning took it off private.

Speaker 1: 26:56

Oh, she's like, finally I did it happened.

Speaker 2: 26:59

Yeah, I mean let somebody. Let somebody try again, we'll have fun.

Speaker 1: 27:04

Oh look, I won't be so nice this time. We've got a whole crew here.

Speaker 2: 27:07

Oh, I won't be so nice this time. We're going to have fun now.

Speaker 1: 27:10

It's going to be a blast. Everybody can go at it.

Speaker 2: 27:13

Oh, I won't. I won't be nice this time. I've I've tried to be nice, but we're past being nice.

Speaker 1: 27:19

So so now we lead into our next topic, and a very important topic, because I know KevTek IT supports going through the course. I know you're going through the course, I'm sure there's some others going through the course the Google cybersecurity course. What have you thought about it so far? Coming in as someone who knew none of the terminology, only knew, like you had, an understanding of how to turn the computer on and off and type and then the internet and how to dig up shit on people.

Speaker 1: 27:51

That's about all you knew. So what have you thought about the course so far? Like, what is it given to you?

Speaker 2: 27:58

Honestly it. It has been amazing for, like how they advertise it as being geared towards people with no technical background. I'm like that's me. Sign me up and it's definitely, and I love how they break things down the further I get into it. Do I think I would get a job based off of just this alone? Probably not, but it gives me the foundation that I need to understand other things. But they introduce a topic, they break it down, they break down parts of the different things and as you keep going, those things come up again, they define it again and then they show you ways that it ties into different things. It's like I can't speak highly enough for it, especially if you are somebody with no technical background. The presenters are mostly pretty great. There's a couple that I'm just sitting there like okay and like we were talking about earlier. I discovered I was actually barely disappointed. I thought I was going to thoroughly enjoy Python, but I don't like it.

Speaker 1: 29:15

I think you can have a conversation. I think you will enjoy it because it is very user friendly and reader friendly, but it comes down to the way it's taught, how it's taught and things like that. And I do have a book for you If you decide as we go through our discussions that you want to get into it. Failing that, I may just eventually give it away. So if you don't want it, I'll probably do a giveaway here shortly.

Speaker 2: 29:43

I always love learning new things or trying to learn new things, like that's like I've been a career student, like things interest me, I'm going to research the snot out of it, kind of built into my nature.

Speaker 1: 29:59

Right.

Speaker 2: 30:00

And. I'll give anything a try and, like I said, I thought I was going to enjoy.

Speaker 1: 30:03

It Could be the instructor, and I think it may be, and again, it comes down to the way our brains are wired and how we learn, and when you get distracted by an instructor in stupid flies getting in my hair.

Speaker 2: 30:15

I can see him.

Speaker 1: 30:18

Shit. But again, I think you could do a lot with it. I think it would work great for what you do because it could pull when you script things properly. You can create programs that will pull all the information you want.

Speaker 2: 30:32

Yeah, that's why I thought I was going to like it and like I think you do have a very valid point because of like what we talked about earlier. It's like I don't know if it's a combination of running out of steam coming out of a course where the instructor had such a deadpan voice and face. Plus, this instructor has an accent that's very singsongy and it's distracting to my ADHD brain, even medicated. So I'm like thinking about how he just pronounced a word and like oh, that's what I'm like. Oh wait, I should be paying attention to this. So I think you have a very valid point. I may try to learn it in another way. I'm doing all right on the quizzes after that first one. That first one was rough.

Speaker 1: 31:19

Yeah, and as a thing is like. So I took, I've passed a few Python exams. I don't think I should have passed, but it's one of those things where I grew up in HTML, kind of like you right, we grew up in the HTML age from programming my space to just websites. It didn't matter, and I used to do it all in no pet. So for that I ended up looking at it as I can do anything in code, but because of the way certain programming languages work, I just couldn't handle it. It just I was like dude, I'm lost. I understand nothing about this. I took C++ in college. I took other courses, I've gone through Python and I'm one of those people that I love Python. I think it is amazing language. It could do so much. Scripting languages are my favorite. Python is by far number one. It is so reader friendly in what it's doing.

Speaker 2: 32:29

I did enjoy that. When I got into the labs of it, I was like, oh cool, I can like this one. This one makes sense, I can see it. I'm not confused which I remember we talked about when I first got into the Linux one. I was so intimidated and terrified I had to sit there. I was sitting there like this, when I was getting ready, I had the screen up and it had the big start lab button. I'm sitting there like oh my God, oh my God. And I'm like, wait, it's a lab, you can't make it blow up. Let's do this. And then by the end of it I think I texted you right after it I was like I feel like Penelope Garcia.

Speaker 1: 33:11

So what I'm about to do is I'm going to send you my playlist to my Linux basics for hackers. I'm going to send you that entire playlist because I went through the entire book and a lot of the commands that you already learned. You're going to go through again, but I try to explain it in a way that is different than others. So I hope it helps in your learning. For that, because Linux is like the primary operating system for anybody in this field because it can tie into every operating system. You can actually take that and pull information from whatever the hell you want. It doesn't matter.

Speaker 2: 33:49

Yeah, I definitely want to get like I have. I just after yeah, just after I got home from work today, I did finish week one, of course seven. So I have three more weeks in this course and then I have one more for the Google one, but I definitely. So I don't remember what's supposed to be gone over. This entire one is on Python, but I don't remember what the eighth course is on.

Speaker 1: 34:20

But I definitely want to get more intimate with Linux, yeah, but and we'll get into it and me and you will go through more and look, I see all your books there. Go ahead, show the audience, yeah.

Speaker 2: 34:34

And this one's full, all the shit you've been learning this one's full. And then we're pretty far into this one and I'm one of those note takers where, like, that's my notes.

Speaker 2: 34:51

And it's like that through almost the entire book. So, yeah, I'm writing textbooks over here, but that's how I remember things, like as I'm physically writing it, it like writes it into my brain and like, even like that, just even though I wrote it down, I just misread like the instructions on one of the Linux labs and I'm sitting here, like you get an hour to do them, and I'm sitting here. I burned up probably 15, 20 minutes trying to figure out what was going on. And then, like I read the instructions and it's like navigate, because I could not figure out why it wasn't finding this file I was supposed to find them like, and I was like, oh, because I'm not in the right directory. And then the one. The next one was on SQL and I burned up half my time trying to like how their labs work. Is they give you like a list of steps, like usually your first couple, like early on in the course. They give you literal, step by step instructions and then, as you get further, they're like okay, find this.

Speaker 1: 35:56

And then you have to remember how to find that Find locate are the best commands in Linux, but they are the best.

Speaker 2: 36:07

Well, it was you were supposed to be like I don't remember the exact specific thing, but through like each one, like sometimes they'll give you like a question to answer, like oh, which, what's the? The first username under this category, and like you check it and everything. But then once you're finished each task, it says check my progress and as long as you did everything correctly, it'll say finished, or it'll say you did not complete it. And I got to.

Speaker 2: 36:37

It was like the last task on a SQL thing and it gave me two different things I had to find. I got the questions correct, finding these things so clearly I found them, but when I hit check progress, it said I didn't complete it. I went through, I think, three or four different ways for each of these things I was supposed to find, to find the tables, and I found the exact same information and realized more than likely that very first one. I was supposed to find a table and then find this information on the table, but I found the exact just what I wanted and I was like and it's still I could not. I'm like, if you want, me to use the code.

Speaker 2: 37:25

Look, I will not use a command, not have me find it. Four different ways for two different things, so that was like eight different things total to find the same information. I think I remember going off to you I'm like clearly I know what I'm doing and this isn't great, and so I'm moving on.

Speaker 1: 37:40

Yeah, I absolutely despise SQL. Anybody who knows anything about me. I've gone through a lot of courses. I have more letters after my name than the damn alphabet, but I despise SQL. I despise anything with web app just because it's not my forte. It's not what I enjoy, it's not what I've delved into. I've been able to program, but ever since web apps and web programming have become more advanced, I never kept up with it, and so for me it's more of a more of the internal guy. Give me networks and windows and operating systems and things like that, I'll go Ham, I love that shit.

Speaker 1: 38:22

But you start talking to me about web apps these days. Look, if you've gone beyond XHTML, dhtml and HTML, I'm fucking lost. I'm like, eh, and so when it comes to like SQL injection and like the different things you can do with SQL, literally I passed my OSCP and it was just me getting lucky finding I did some research, found some shit that worked for some shit, and I was like, all right, we're gonna find a way to get through this, let's do it, let's just figure it out. But I say that because cybersecurity is all about research. Everything we do is the ability to find information.

Speaker 1: 39:10

Which goes back to everything you have done so far in your life and getting to where you're at now. It's been about finding the information, being able to do the research, being able to figure out okay, what do I need to find, what do I need to do, how do I need to do this, this and this. So in that regard, I would say you're further ahead than a lot of people that have been in this field for a while, because we lose that ability. We lose that, especially once you get to a certain level. You're no longer doing the research, you're no longer taking action, you're no longer getting hands on keyboard. So for you, you're further ahead than I would venture a guess, 60% of the people out there, if not more, if not more. You're further ahead than that Because you've done the. You have and have done the actions that are necessary to not only learn cybersecurity, but you've been doing it since before you knew about cybersecurity or you got into it.

Speaker 2: 40:21

Who knew, who knew? Yeah, but again, like the course on networks, like when you said oh, I think I almost didn't quite cry my way through that, but that one was stressful. That one was I was like wait, what I was like because like I've purposely, it's like okay, I can make it do what I need it to do. Can I tell you how I made it? Do it? Absolutely not.

Speaker 1: 40:47

Nope, not a clue, I just got it to work.

Speaker 2: 40:50

Is it possible it might blow up Next time you look at it wrong. That's also possible, but I got the information I needed and I got it to do what I needed. Just don't look at it too hard.

Speaker 1: 41:04

So Natalie and my boys are in AR, so infinite probability AI Dude. I freaking hate that name. You need to change it, free brain. But both of them they talk about scripting languages, which is what Python is. And so Natalie's comment learning different scripting languages are easy once you get the hang of one. Lies, lies and deceit, and I stand by that. So Amanda here over here has not gone through anything more than Python. I have played in Ruby. I have played in Pearl. I have played in Python. Walk that shit. No, no, no. Ruby and Pearl get bent. I will never touch them shits again if I can avoid it.

Speaker 2: 42:00

No, this is all I've done on Python so far. Just this right here.

Speaker 1: 42:08

Python is extremely reader friendly.

Speaker 2: 42:11

Yes. It is very print this.

Speaker 1: 42:14

Do that. It is very basic in the way it's commands are written.

Speaker 2: 42:18

And that's where it was deceiving. It was deceiving. It made me think I was safe and comfortable, and then I'm like I'm so confused right now.

Speaker 1: 42:27

Ruby and Pearl and I dealt with. So I've worked within Rapid7 and kind of fixed some of the scripts for one of the companies that I used to work for. There's a language where the error statements are similar, but the way it is written I literally was like what the hell are you trying to do here? Like I can't. I don't even know why it's raking. I can't figure out what you're trying to do. I know it's here, I know this is the variable, I know this is what you're trying to do, but I'm lost. Fuck it, we're just gonna put it in parentheses or changes command. We'll figure it out, we'll get there, we'll make it work. And that was literally what I came down to.

Speaker 1: 43:16

Whereas with Python, when I've come across broken scripts or shit that just doesn't want to function right, I'm just like all right, cool, so you're doing this, this, this. Oh, you hit another file. All right, let me go here. This, this, this, ah, this is where it broke. All right, let me fix this and go back and it'll function properly. I have fixed bash scripts and Python scripts.

Speaker 1: 43:36

Well, I personally didn't fix them. I let the people know that it was broke and I let them know why it was broke and what was broken. Only because I am not really good at the whole GitHub pull request thing. My old job tried to get me good at that and I still suck at it. So I'm more of like hey, can you fix this please? This is what's wrong and this is what it takes to fix it. Can you please go fix it so that I don't have to? That's kind of how I operate. I'm kind of like you know what, you fix it on your end. I'm just gonna let you know we're in the slack, we're good, that's fine, I mean it works.

Speaker 1: 44:20

So so with that, all right. So I'm gonna have you chime in on this. So Natalie says you're resourceful. You find the answers, you're sure. Once you get the hang of using the self-help tools on one tool, you learn how to use them to your advantage With that, and here we go, Solo. What would you say has been the best way for you to learn this so far, and how have you been able to take what you're learning with the Google Cyber course into what you've been doing in day to day and just kind of how you've been going about learning cyber in general?

Speaker 2: 45:12

All right now I just completely blanked on. You put me like solo and I'm like, oh God, you love it.

Speaker 1: 45:19

Don't lie, you're meant for it. You belong here.

Speaker 2: 45:21

You've been doing it all the time for like not making TikTok content. I'm like I can be in like a conversation sitting. Yeah, being resourceful, I've definitely through learning everything. I definitely would do Google things as well as looking up other YouTube. Like once I got enough of a solid foundation, I did start watching more like separate YouTube videos and I'm definitely hitting up with questions like, especially if I need something clarified. Like I think I under, I forget even what it was. The last one I was like okay, I think I understand this, but I'm not sure if I understand this. I thought I did, but then they confused me. So is this this? And I don't even remember what it was at this point. But I said, yeah, I just I go go through different avenues to find how it's explained. In the best way for me to understand, I think, is if that's if I'm understanding the question correctly whether it be Google YouTube you.

Speaker 1: 46:31

How about me? I mean, that's one of those things. So have you, because of all the privacy issues, because of everything you have found recently, especially in all the digging you've done and now understanding more about cybersecurity and more about privacy and what is public, have you done more to kind of hide who you are? So we know, google, Apple, amazon, facebook, all these companies kind of track everything and they can find where you're at, what you're doing. It doesn't matter what you do, they know it all. Have you done more to kind of get away from those other than social media, other than what we need to do to promote ourselves and what we're doing, linkedin? But in your daily life, your searches, your what you're doing online like, are you using more VPNs? Are you doing more with like dot, dot, go, like?

Speaker 2: 47:33

are you doing more to kind of?

Speaker 1: 47:35

get away from the corporate structure of the way the internet is right now.

Speaker 2: 47:42

I do occasionally use a VPN, though some of the sites that I use don't work with them, so I do and, oddly enough, my banking app does not, or my bank period. The website and the app will not work with their VPN on will not work.

Speaker 1: 48:08

I'm not gonna put this out there. I mean you will talk privately later. That intrigues me.

Speaker 2: 48:14

Yeah, it completely. I was like they couldn't give me an explanation, like I thought the app was down.

Speaker 1: 48:19

Oh, I got an explanation. I've got a reason. I'm just intrigued that actually didn't play, because I've never seen that in play for a bank.

Speaker 2: 48:30

Yeah, like I thought the app was down, I was like that's weird. And then I called. I was like is there maintenance? That's been going on with this app for two weeks and then it clicked as I asked that I'm like this started right after I put the VPN on my phone, so I turned it off and I was like, oh, it works. Okay, that's weird, why.

Speaker 1: 48:51

So I can tell you why. Do you wanna know why?

Speaker 2: 48:54

Yes.

Speaker 1: 48:55

So if you are coming out of a location other than where they locally operate, so you look at certain banks that are only in certain states or certain areas of the country or certain parts of the world.

Speaker 2: 49:06

My main intention is why, though?

Speaker 1: 49:07

They will block access if you are in areas, because all of these, a lot of states and a lot of countries well, all countries, but a lot of states, though will have IP addresses that are local to them, that are assigned to those states and to those locations yeah, so if you're coming out of an area that is not local to where your bank is, they block it.

Speaker 2: 49:36

But my bank's nationwide.

Speaker 1: 49:39

Well then, where the hell was your VPN coming out of?

Speaker 2: 49:42

I think it was set to New York at the time, then they're blocking actual VPNs. That's kind of what I was assuming, but and it's possible.

Speaker 1: 49:54

There's VPNs. All your VPNs have an IP address range assigned to them. Well, should, there's a few that don't, because they're more anonymous and allow you to kind of like float. But generally speaking, a lot of your VPNs have a static IP address assigned to them, so they get put into blocks and they say, hey, if you're coming from a VPN provider, we're not going to be provided by you.

Speaker 1: 50:24

You could potentially use something like a proton VPN Tor. Tor is hit or miss just because, yeah, if you are coming from the wrong location or people know that it's a Tor end node, they block it. All known Tor end nodes get blocked on certain sites. So if it gets flagged as a Tor node, yeah.

Speaker 2: 50:51

I had to double check which one? Yeah, I have proton. I'm surprised, protons blocked protons, like they're anonymous.

Speaker 1: 50:57

They don't log anything. So they say again I trust them more because they're out of Sweden. That's why I take my proton mail. That's why I do what I do. Through them they're less likely to comply with other people's bullshit. But yeah, I'm surprised their VPN got flagged. They might need to change IP addresses. Yeah, that was weird, Like I don't know.

Speaker 2: 51:21

Yeah, that was weird, like I mean, it made sense, but it was weird at the same time. I'm like okay, whatever, I understand. Right, it's one of those things you understand.

Speaker 1: 51:33

You're like kind of makes sense, but at the same time I'm kind of like I want to be able to use a VPN to access this shit. Yeah, because I use a VPN like if I'm, I now have it set up on my phone. If I'm going through and connect to an Xfinity Wi-Fi or something else or another Wi-Fi hotspot, I want my VPN to kick on and I'll access my bank through that, because I don't trust that Wi-Fi network. I don't trust sitting on it. So that's really odd. That proton got flagged and they're normally not willing to share that information. So if they got flagged, that means someone's watching their IP address space. And if your bank's doing that, I'm really worried Now on what bank you're using. You might want to go somewhere else because they're watching all your money.

Speaker 2: 52:28

What money Shhh?

Speaker 1: 52:31

You're not supposed to tell people you're broke. I actually know we're both broke. I got super chats and if you want to donate to the cause, some of it is for other places.

Speaker 2: 52:42

Yeah, I mean after this back injury, I mean I've been unemployed for almost a year, so, yeah, what money.

Speaker 1: 52:48

Ha, ha, ha ha. Well, we're gonna get you there.

Speaker 2: 52:51

We're gonna get you there. What's the goal? The?

Speaker 1: 52:53

whole point of you being here is we want to get you there and get you to a point where, look, I want you to be working for any organization, any company, any whatever that you can utilize your skillset. You have so many different skills, whether it's the passion for learning, the ability to grow, the knowledge for the open source intelligence, and the fact that you can literally take a username and turn it into an entire dossier of a person is absolutely amazing. Like, you give me a username, I'm gonna look at that. I'm gonna go okay, I found this, this and this. I give you a username, you're gonna have a 20 page dossier in about 10 minutes, being like, hey, this is everything they've done in their life and I'm like ha ha ha.

Speaker 2: 53:49

The last situation. Dude was dumb enough to put his Venmo in his bio. It was that easy. Well, this is true, it was that easy. I was like, oh look, there you are.

Speaker 1: 54:04

Yeah, but that's the thing. So you know, it's one of those things I've looked at that get really curious about situations because we're at a time right now where, let's be honest, the shit's hitting the fan. Things are going crazy, people are going crazy. So, in your eyes, if you were to look at privatizing everything, what would you say to protect people from being found by you, what advice would you give?

Speaker 2: 54:34

Get offline. I mean that does sound like arrogant or anything, but I mean some information and I'm not gonna fully disclose all of this, but I have recently, like, done a deep dive on somebody that I found absolutely zilch on that person, but I found everything to do with their family, which thus led me back to them, so, and all of their stuff is locked down, private, no pictures, different usernames across the board but I found everything to do with their family and was able to find out everything, including addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, net worth, places of employment, where they went to school, birth dates, and this, my particular target, was completely private.

Speaker 1: 55:42

See, I love that you say that, because me and my father have had this conversation, because with everything that here in the US they've tried to do, which is basically enact the Patriot Act on steroids, I mean him have a conversations and he's in GRC. He is one of those people that should know cybersecurity, understand how privacy works, all this other stuff, and he comes into. Oh well, I have nothing to hide, so it doesn't matter. Everybody has something to hide. Everybody has something they don't want the government to know or they don't want so-and-so to know. So when you look at these situations, I look at it as it doesn't matter what we do, matters what those connected to us do. And because those connected to us don't give it excuse me, don't give it to him, it doesn't matter what you do To your point, pull yourself offline altogether. Nobody can tag you, nobody can find you, you have no address to your name.

Speaker 2: 56:49

Yeah, that is the only way you will ever be completely safe, but even then, still kind of out there.

Speaker 1: 56:58

Well, it is because if they know your parents, they know where they've lived, they know your surrounding area and there will be pictures out there your parents, your sisters, your siblings, your brother your sister.

Speaker 2: 57:06

Yeah, someone's gonna have a picture in the front yard.

Speaker 1: 57:08

Somebody's gonna have a picture that has shown where you live, where you've been at or who you are. Some way, shape or form, it'll get back to you. This is why and I'm gonna have you give one little bit piece of advice more after this but this is why I say on occasion and this is the first time I'm gonna say it publicly on this show I wish the whole power grid would fail sometimes and the internet would go offline forever, because it has made it way too easy for people to find people that they don't need to be finding, to include victims, true victims, and that is-.

Speaker 2: 57:49

I mean, you heard about the situation that we had to coordinate. What was it a month ago now?

Speaker 1: 57:53

Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, that was fun. So it is one of those things. As much as I love technology, I love the internet Spies at the same time. Yeah, besides that, we are coming to the top of the hour. I'm gonna let Amanda give her final words here in a minute, but if you wanna leave a super chat, you wanna leave a comment, you wanna leave something, please go ahead and do so. If you wanna donate to the cause, look if you're watching this afterwards, I have tips also down below. I could really use the money to keep this show going. I've been doing it for 100, some episodes, and YouTube doesn't wanna fund me, so fuck them. It's all about you guys, all about those who watch the show. Otherwise, amanda, for those going through Google cybersecurity, for those trying to break in, for those trying to do anything, what advice would you give them? So you know how this show goes? You tune in every week.

Speaker 2: 58:51

I know, I know I gotta think. I gotta think. I mean just be ready to learn, ask the questions. It's I mean I've heard it said on here a bunch of times Like when you first step through that door, it is so overwhelming, there's so much information that you kind of just need a lifeline to navigate until you can get your footing. Like that's kind of like the best way I can, best way I can describe it, because, like I forget who it was. That was like it was a tidal wave of information. I was like that is the most accurate thing I've ever heard in my life. I was so overwhelmed and it was like actually kind of questioning if this field was meant for me, until somebody decided to send me a scam job on LinkedIn and I asked you how to report them and by the time you responded to me, I already found their life story.

Speaker 1: 59:55

I'm making a lot of.

Speaker 2: 59:56

I owe you a lot of doing that kid. Oh, but yeah, it's like learn everything. You can Ask all of the questions, Keep digging in different areas to find more about something you don't understand.

Speaker 1: 1:00:14

And see, that's the biggest thing, right? So in this career field, in this industry, it's all about questions. It's all about asking those questions and not being afraid to feel stupid, because, let's be honest, nobody is stupid in this industry. You just have a lack of knowledge that you have not learned yet. If you have the ability to learn it, if you're willing to learn it, that is what is important to me.

Speaker 1: 1:00:34

Now I have reached out to a lot of people. They know I am looking to do a lot of big things here in the future, so they know I don't give a damn where you come from. I don't give a damn who you are. I care about your passion and willingness to grow in this industry. Amanda, I have some people I'm gonna reach out to. Don't get me wrong. I don't know if they still work in certain industries, but I'm gonna find out and I'm gonna find out and I'm gonna help you out, because I want you to succeed. I want you to get to where you need to be at.

Speaker 1: 1:01:05

Otherwise, look, hey, I love everybody who has tuned in this week. I love everybody that's been here every week, from Andrea to Jenny to Space Tacos. Yeah, I know who the fuck you are. It's R&A Art, because I'm not pronouncing that entire name. Monawa, andrea, you name it. I love you all. You're all amazing. Jack, thank you for tuning in once again, otherwise, look, you can come back, you can leave a tip, you can do super chats, you can do all this shit. You can also find me on oh, I don't know my website down below. You're all amazing. You're all beautiful people. You all deserve to be here, and if somebody tells you otherwise, please send them my way, because I'll straighten them out, because that's what I do. I love you all. Take care, and I'll see you next week for another amazing episode of Security Happy Hour. Be safe.